Utah Pride Festival

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The rainbow flag at the back of the 2014 Utah Pride parade. People watch from the street, from rooftops, and from a parking structure.

The Utah Pride Festival is a festival held in downtown Salt Lake City in June celebrating Utah's diversity and gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. The event is a program of the Utah Pride Center, and includes the state's second-largest parade, after the Days of '47 Parade.[1]

Festivities

File:Kitchen v Herbert plaintiffs with Liberty and Justice at Utah Pride.png
The Kitchen v. Herbert plaintiffs participate as grand marshals while Lady Liberty and Lady Justice kiss at the 2014 Utah Pride parade in Salt Lake City. The words on the side of the float read, "Our Champions for Marriage Equality".

The festival includes the parade, a film festival, the Dyke March, an interfaith service by the Utah Pride Interfaith Coalition,[2] 5K charity run, and related parties and receptions.

Participation in the festival cuts across a broad spectrum of Utahns. Past speakers during the celebration have ranged from Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson, who was quoted in support of same sex marriage, to Utah Rep. Jackie Biskupski, the state's first openly lesbian legislator.

The festival's last day (Sunday) begins with the parade. Participants have included Mayor Ralph Becker,[3] County Mayor Ben McAdams,[4] a group of uniformed Boy Scouts, the largest group - Mormons Building Bridges, Mormons for Equality, the Provo Pride Council,[5] and Weber State University.[6] Over 140[4] organizations, sponsors, and religious groups participate.[7] A large rainbow flag fills the street at the back of the parade.[5]


History

File:Utah Pride 2006.jpg
Salt Lake City Library during the 2006 Utah Pride Festival, which was centered around the Salt Lake City and County Building in the background.

The festival began in 1977 when the Salt Lake Coalition for Human Rights sponsored a three-day conference. Affirmation: Gay & Lesbian Mormons (then called Gay Mormons United) was founded during this conference, on June 11.[8] The 1978 keynote speakers were David Kopay, the first NFL player to come out of the closet, and U.S. Air Force Sgt. Leonard Matlovich, an ex-Mormon who was the first openly gay person to appear on the cover of Time magazine.[9]

Utah Pride Inc. was created in 1989 through 2004 as a project of the Gay and Lesbian Community Council of Utah. The project was renamed Pride of Utah in 2006.[9][10][11]

The first Pride parade in the state was held in 1990 and included a procession of 270.[12] In 1991, the Utah Stonewall Center opened and Pride festivities moved to the Salt Lake County Fairgrounds in Murray, Utah.[13] The parade attracted twice as many participants along with opposition by members of the Aryan Nation.[12] The Pride Day Art Expo and Competition was created to award local artists with its Lesbian and Gay Pride Art Award and the Mapplethorpe Award.[9]

In 2004, an estimated 50,000 people attended, the largest since the festival began.[8] However, in 2005, the first year in which an admission was charged, attendance at the festival was 15,000 to 20,000. Some have attributed this decline to patrons not wanting to pay for admission to the festival.[citation needed] Festival organizers argued that it was the first year in which an accurate method of counting the attendance was employed and that the numbers did not reflect a drop in attendance.[14]

The 2012 festival included performers Frenchie Davis and Prince Poppycock[15]

In 2014, Mayor Ralph Becker threw a private wedding reception for couples whose marriages he performed on the first day that same-sex marriage became legal in Utah.[16]

Utah Pride Festival History
Year Dates Festival name Theme Grand Marshal Estimated attendance
May 1974 Beer Bust Kegger
1975 June 1 Gay Freedom Day[17]
1976 Memorial Day Kegger
1977 June 10 – June 12 Human Rights 400
1978 June Pride Day Leonard Matlovich, David Kopay
1983 Basket Social
1990 Pride Day Look to the Future Dr. Kristen Ries
1991
1992 Pride Day Jess Hawk Oakenstar
1993 Walter Larabee
1994 Stonewall: Twenty-five Years Remembered, Twenty-five Years of Progress[9] 4000
1995 5000
1996 June 9 Pride Day Pride... Without Borders Chastity Bono
2000 May Utah Pride Day A New Era of Pride Rep Jackie Biskupski[18]
2001 June 7 – June 10 Utah Pride Embracing Diversity
2002 June 9 Utah Pride Day Unity in the Community- Change From Within Alicia Suazo[19]
2003 Be Yourself Out Loud
2004 June 11 – June 13 Utah Pride Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are! Bruce Bastian[20] 50,000
2005 June 8 – June 12 Utah Pride Equal Rights. No More. No Less. 15,000 - 20,000
2006 June 1 – June 4 Utah Pride Week[21] Pride, Not Prejudice Boyer Jarvis, Ph.D[22] 20,000[23]
2007 June 1 – June 3 Utah Pride Days[24] United for Equality John Amaechi[25]
2008 June 6 – June 8 Utah Pride Come Together Ralph Becker[26][27]
2009 June 5 – June 7 Utah Pride Festival Pride. Voice. Action. Cleve Jones[28] 20,000[29]
2010 June 4 – June 6 Utah Pride Festival Our History, Our Future Sister Dottie S. Dixon[30] 25,000
2011 June 3 – June 5 Utah Pride Festival Live. Love. Pride. Roseanne Barr[31] 28,000[32]
2012 June 1 – June 3 Utah Pride Festival Changing Hearts and Lives Dustin Lance Black[33]
2013 May 30 - June 2 Utah Pride Festival Gotta Be Real-Equality[34] David Testo[35] 35,000[4]
2014 June 5 - June 8 Utah Pride Festival Love Equals Love The Three Couples from Utah's Marriage Equality Case: Laurie Wood and Kody Partridge, Moudi Sbeity and Derek Kitchen, Kate Call and Karen Archer[36]
2015 June 4 - June 7 Utah Pride Festival Pride Is Janet Mock[37]

See also

Notes

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  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found..
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.[dead link]
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  29. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  30. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  31. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  32. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  33. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  34. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  35. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  36. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  37. ↑ Utah Pride 2015 (insert section in the 28 May 2015 issue of Salt Lake City Weekly), pp. 20=36

References

External links

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